Would you pay for a can of fresh air?

Breathe deeply

It's like something out of a futuristic sci-fi film - except it's real, and it's happening in China

When Canadians Moses Lam and Troy Paquette put a plastic bag full of air on eBay as a joke and it sold for $160, they realised they might be onto something. And they were: their start-up, Vitality Air, is now making a motza selling bottles of fresh air to Chinese citizens suffering from severe levels of smog.

"Our first shipment of 500 bottles of fresh air were sold in four days," Lam told The Telegraph. His company launched two months ago and is already receiving calls from Chinese companies keen to distribute it. It's a timely initiative - Beijing recently issued a red alert for air pollution, ordering half of the city's cars off the roads in an effort to deal with the toxic levels of smog.

Vitality Air's product is taken from the pristine environs of Banff National Park in Canada's Rocky Mountains and is selling for 100 yuan (that's AUD$21.50) for a 7.7-litre can, which, according to The Telegraph, is 50 times pricier than a bottle of water in China. Ouch.

No word on how you consume the air (do you drink it? Does it work?), but if China's enthusiasm is any indication, this is only the beginning.

A note about relevant advertising

We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising
and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. This is also known as Online Behavioural
Advertising. You can find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out here